Momentum - Sunshine Desserts

Yosi Marshall - Soprano Sax

Ever since a brief but intense stint as the artist-in-residence at the legendary Bull's Head in 2012/2013 I have wanted to sketch Momentum again. Those sketches made the backbone of an exhibition of 50 prints and drawings that lasted for over a year until the Bull's Head changed hands. Luckily Momentum have outlasted the exhibition and once again I preserved them in my sketchbook, this time at The Swan in Hampton Wick (25/03/2014).

Kate de Freitas - Sultry

It was a relaxed affair at The Swan, with the football in HD screened just behind my head and the football chants appreciatively reduced to a murmur, it created an informal atmosphere. More than once during quieter moments frontman Yosi Marshall was transfixed by the contest between our two Manchester clubs those of City and United.

Lyn Edwards - drums

Momentum very much used this as a 'friendly' and like its footballing equivalent they kept their super sub on the bench for at least half of their two sets. This was the third gig in three days for singer Kate de Freitas and rightfully she took time to enter the action. Her first tune "Jigsaw" was a burner not in groove terms but the way she ground our desires in the dirt at her feet, in the predominantly male audience our subservient tendencies surfaced. "Voodoo Magic" saw the casting off of her 'fur' coat and no one saw Dzeko's second goal's as it hit the back of the net.

John Palmer - bass

My sketchbook is always unkind to drummer Lyn Edwards and my last painting represented him in zombie like hues and this time was no different. His playing was far from undead, with his crisp work on 'Howling Butterflies" with its evocative fairground themes that arrived in a helter skelter as John Palmer and Yosi Marshall rode tandem on it's hessian sack.

Urszula Szczepanek - Piano

Palmer with his boyish grin was very much the bounce of the second set, his easy going demeanour reminds you of a children's TV presenter just past his formative years, a kind of 'Gaz Top' who likes to smoke roll-ups and has a good line in humorous anecdotes.
Two aspects of tonight's performance that stood proud more than any others was firstly the contribution of Paul Viski who effortlessly it seemed created the backbone and tone of the evening. Secondly, a tune that epitomised its location in sound rather than title. "Deckchairs" was beautiful in its Reggie Perrin darkness, with John Palmer creating the bounce of a
suburban gent about to catch the 7.52 from nearby Hampton Wick. Yosi Marshall on clarinet presented the flip of the coin with the heartache and loneliness of the long distant commuter.

Paul Viski

As I got back home after a diverted bus journey, Reggie Perrin's spirit came to my aid and in true Sunshine Desserts style I said to my wife "Eleven minutes late, water main maintenance, Hampton Wick."

AL.